Smithsonian Showcases Hispanic Artists In ‘Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art’

WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — The Smithsonian Institute’s American Art Museum is exhibiting works by 72 U.S. Hispanic artists, hoping to showcase talent that has long been considered isolated and alien.

“Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art” will include 92 works of art by 72 modern Latino artists from the second half of the 20th century.

E. Carmen Ramos, curator of the exhibit, said many U.S. Hispanic artists have not gained the recognition they deserve because of discrimination by mainstream museums, who considered them too foreign.

“We are at a point in history where Latino art as a field is getting a lot more of attention, and we are now able to look at that broad contribution. So we are part of a wave of a revisionist activity that is looking at situation the Latino within the context of the United States,” Ramos told the AP on Thursday.

Ramos said the exhibit would show that U.S. Hispanic artists are part of the American artistic landscape, because the Smithsonian is “viewed as the repository of our cultural patrimony, and to be able to include Latino artists within that concept is a very powerful thing”.

The exhibit, which will be open for six months, will include works such as “Radiante” (“Radiant”) by Puerto Rico-born Olga Albizu, and “Man on Fire,” a fiber glass sculpture by Luis Jimenez, who died in 2006 and whose steel-and-fiber glass sculpture “Vaquero” (1980) adorns the museum’s entrance.

The exhibit includes works of abstract expressionism, activism, conceptual art and performances, but also more traditional American styles such as landscapes, portraits and scenes from daily lives.

The artists are all of varied backgrounds, such as Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and Dominican.

Ramos pointed out the canvas by Frank Romero, “Death of Ruben Salazar,” which portrays the death of Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar, being hit by a tear gas canister during a demonstration in support of the Chicano movement in 1970.